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Which one is right for you: Waterfall or Agile?

The first thing to discuss before starting a project for most IT companies is whether to follow the Waterfall or Agile software development method. The two methods come with their own distinct advantages and thus contribute differently to the resulting performance. Here, in order to help you choose better, we aim to differentiate between the two.

System of Waterfalls

The waterfall method is a conventional, linear approach to the creation of code following a recorded sequence of steps:

Documentation of criteria
Design
Testing code and unit
Testing the system
Testing of user acceptance
Correction of bugs
Product completed

The above sequence is followed by a waterfall method project in steps without going back and forth.

Waterfall’s Method Advantages

The project’s process flow is determined and agreed from beginning to end, making end-to-end planning more efficient and transparent.
Measuring progress across the SDLC is easier.
Client presence is hardly needed except for pre-determined reviews and approvals.
Design is completed early in the development cycle, making the completion of the project faster in projects requiring the integration of multiple modules.
Since ALL the software deliverables are decided early, the software can be planned more carefully – this will ensure that no aspect of the software being developed is wrong with the software as a whole.

Related Post: What is Agile Methodology?

Drawback’s of process Waterfall

Up to the last few steps of the process, no working code is made.
It is not appropriate for projects where there is a risk of changing requirements. There are a fair amount of improvements that consumers put in with most projects.
Therefore, it will be impractical to use the waterfall model approach in such situations.
Changing a project’s scope in a waterfall methodology frequently can cause expensive delays and drastically change the required output.
Since all modules are integrated only at the last stage, it becomes difficult to identify potential project bottlenecks
Often with only the specifications file, it is difficult to visualize the program in its entirety. So in cases where changes to the software are needed, this can only be done after the development process has bee completed. This makes it hard to implement software changes when following the Waterfall method.

Agile Methodology

Agile is an iterative software development process that requires a close feedback loop to quickly develop applications. Agile deviates from a document-based approach to a collaborative software development approach. “Sprints” are created during the development of software using Agile instead of tasks. That sprint usually lasts a few weeks ad within that time a list of deliverables is completed and sent to the customer for review. There is an end-of-spirit test for customers after which the job for the next sprint is decided.

The benefits of Agile method

Because the user is often involved in the process of software development, the correct decisions are made in the project very early.
For what the technology is shaping us to be, the user gets a first-hand view and can, therefore, get a sense of ownership of the venture.
If the time-to-time market available is short, Agile can help you quickly release a rudimentary software version.

Agile method Drawbacks

Agile can be problematic for customers who have no time or interest in getting involved with the project frequently. Since agile involves frequent re-prioritization, a few modules set for release within a sprint can become difficult to complete. In such instances, adding all of the functionality to the code requires additional sprints. This can increase the time and cost of implementing the solution.

While Agile and Waterfall are popular methods of software development, we are absorbing your requirements at Ouriken to design our own software development framework or to use Agile and Waterfall methods to deliver our best. To learn more about our methods of development, get in touch with us now.

Ouriken’s Agile consulting framework includes agile consulting, delivery transformation, digital, analytics, and development to meet customer needs. Ouriken is a standalone web design and digital agency. We design and implements powerful solutions for small and medium businesses in technology, business, and operations.

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Artificial Intelligence, Business Process Management, CRM Software, Digital Solutions, IoT

Why Businesses Must Integrate Artificial Intelligence [AI]?

In 2017, Artificial Intelligence became one of the hottest topics and is still attracting attention and investments. There was a void in businesses without AI – Artificial Intelligence, before that social networking, mobile apps, the Internet of Things, and Data Analytics have filled that void. Scientists have been working upon the technology and been talking about the benefits of AI from the past four decades, it’s about time that society’s AI dreams are coming true.

When the term AI is told, people think of the AI we encounter in personal lives which is web ads dependent and based on our search history, facial recognition on Facebook, or the IVR of banks or other companies. Or perhaps, some people think of personal digital assistants namely, Siri (Apple), Alexa (Amazon), Cortana (Microsoft), and Google Assistant (Google). But AI applications impacted both consumer and business operations. For example, a Harley Davidson dealer implemented an AI-driven marketing platform into his marketing mix and the results were astonishingly high. He witnessed a 2930 percent increase in sales, which literally tripled his business over the previous year. But every AI integration is not as successful as that dealer. Social Networking and Smartphones were into the consumer world first then they moved into Business, in the same way, we can expect AI to seep into business applications in a natural way. However, with an increase in the volumes of people, places, and things plus there is also an increase in computing speeds and real-time processing power. AI applicability and business benefits are becoming a reality with immediate effect.

AI Estimations

A survey of Cowen and Company, currently 81% of IT leaders are investing in or planning to invest in AI. CIOs are also heralding to their companies for the integration of AI into their entire technology hub. Meanwhile, 43 percent are doing a proof of concept for AI, and 38 percent of organizations have already implemented AI and been planning to invest more into it.

Estimation from McKinsey research states that tech giants spent $20 billion to $30 billion on AI in 2016. Of that, R & D and deployment will get 90 percent and 10 percent to AI acquisitions. Artificial Intelligence will grow to a $47 billion market by 2020, says industry analyst firm IDC with a compound annual growth rate of 55%. Companies will spend around $18 billion on software applications, $billion on software platforms, and $24 billion on services and hardware, states IDC. Your business will risk irrelevancy if your business doesn’t already have a strategy to incorporate AI or machine learning (ML) into your development efforts by 2020 that too with this level of investment.

Related Post: What is Internet of Things [IoT]?

Exponential Growth of AI

Google, Amazon, and Facebook are leading the AI race right now, with Microsoft just behind between those three are catching up rapidly with the investment of a lot of time and resources in AI. With access to thousands of researchers on staff and billions of dollars set aside for investing in capturing the next generation of leading data scientists, proving these organizations a head start over the rest of the market. For example:
1. Google’s 25,000 engineers, only a few thousand are knowledgeable and proficient, that makes roughly 10 % and they are making efforts to make that number 100 percent.
2. The AI and research group at Microsoft grew by 60% through hiring and acquisitions in the first year of its operations.
3. FBLearner Flow is being used by over 750 Facebook engineers and 40 different product teams, which helps them leverage AI and ML. Over a million models have been trained on the new software.

Moreover, Infor, Microsoft, and Salesforce have also been researching and implementing AI in their business. In the market today, these tech giants are just a few of the serious artificial intelligence contenders. It makes smaller companies very tough to attract and retain the skilled work required to make their AI dreams a reality. Recruiting efforts won’t just be it to create an impact, but also the time required to conduct a new employee onboarding, supervised learning, and training to effectively scale AI programs.

Most companies lack analytical infrastructure and general knowledge needed to apply AI and ML to its full potential. Secured access of data without having to deal with multiple authentications must be enabled by engineers. Often it’s a case if the company has several isolated data warehouses or enterprise resource planning application systems. IT leaders must have the ability to bring large data sets together from several unique and varied data sources into centralized, scalable and observed data repository, for this they have to attempt to successfully deploy and conquer an enterprise-wide AI strategy.

Development of AI Applications Market Place

When it’s clear that the use of AI is important, not all companies have the IT budgets to hire the employees required to build AI-fueled applications that too in-house. For that reason, we can expect to see on an immediate effect, the rise of AI services marketplace in the near future. There is already an emerging form of companies providing AI self – service tools that are very easy to use for the non-data scientist and not that expensive to acquire. These AI market places will resell AI services and specialized algorithms that companies can completely buy and implement within their business, which will make the business process management more easier to handle. To compete in this race of AI, this marketplace will provide companies AI services which are in a modest budget.

Conclusion

We have only seen a few examples of the major AI benefits, we will see a rise in the integration of the AI in the coming future. Having the roots in computer science since, a few decades. It is only now that this concept is getting popular among the organizations as well as the consumer applications, and the need for it increasing day by day. By embedding AI into the core functions of the software enterprise software providers are making AI a necessity. We can see this integration more in the coming years. For businesses, this will mean that they no more need to hire computer scientists or invest large capital to develop their own AI systems.

Ouriken is a standalone web design and digital agency. We design and implements powerful solutions for small and medium businesses in technology, business, and operations.

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CRM Software

Why is CRM software important for your Business?

In the business world, the value of preserving existing clients and growing the business is important. Customer relationship management (CRM) serves companies to get an insight into the behavior of their customers and transform their business operations to guarantee that customers are served in the best possible way. Some organizers have discovered the importance of CRM Software the tough way, but you don’t have to. And this has been possible thankfully because of this digital era, there are CRM systems that will do the work for you. All you need to do is follow the trends and personalize the method according to the requirements of your present and potential customers.

Some of the important points which make CRM must for your business:

Accessing Comprehensive Customer History

CRM software will help you earn more customers and be fast to serve the newly acquired and earlier gained customers. You will also have a record of your leads and contacts and can access them whenever you want. Those leads will not be lost. Using the CRM system you can have an entire history os customer trends and ways.ALso of those customers whom you had acquired before installing CRM into your system. This data is essential for the analysis of the preferences and trends of every customer. Once you understand this, you will identify what to offer them

Helps you Acquire new Customers

The CRM software you apply will not only help you track the history of recently acquired clients but further help you obtain new clients. The system will recognize targets and copy the necessary data into the ‘Opportunity of Business’, which is the CRM system that collects the details to utilize when required. A combined CRM system will benefit the employed Sales and Field representatives s to put this data to utilize and optimize conversion.

Saves Time

The reports on an integrated CRM system is centralized so that it is accessible at any point of time and to any entitled person on any authorized machine whenever required. You don’t waste precious time or a big opportunity waiting for the system to upload or the data to be secured. This boosts productivity which not only instantly translates into enhanced sales, but also builds a reputation for your business.

Helps Business Flourish and Expand

Speaking about reputation, a CRM software supports you with everything so that you can work with perfection and quickly, without any delay at all. It makes your brand image brilliant. Clients will view your company as one of the most experienced ones in the market. Your team will be the best. The point is, the individual employees must understand how to utilize it best and the business will prosper.

To Boost Brand Image

A loyal customer base is essential for the progress of any company and a perfect CRM system leads to you added customers and teaches you how to maintain a relationship with them and turn them true to your brand. So, the CRM system not only benefits the existing business and profits but also assists you to secure a steady prospect for your business.

Help Train your employees

A CRM system eases the employees understand how to go about the customer relationship management part so they obtain experience in the field studying from a software. The system also explains to these human employees how to examine important data and which data to concentrate on. So overall, the CRM system makes your employees and the administration teams further experienced and more productive as compared to what they were when you hired them. In this way, the performance of each employee will continue increasing with each passing day without any outside investment on your part to guide them.

To Reduce Cost

CRM system is good for your business as it is very cost-effective. You will obviously wonder how is that even possible when these tools are actually premium and don’t come cheap either. Well, look at the price cuts you are getting to make. Because of this tool, you can contract your whole analytical team and the marketing team keeping fewer people on the memo. Though you will have to make some cuts to your existing team which may be wrong ethically speaking. But if you commence your business with a CRM system integrated then you won’t require to make any cuts. You will hire only people you need and this will save time and capital that goes into the process of employing.

Ouriken provides a sharp CRM software that gives you the information you want in a way that you can utilize it. A perfect CRM gives you a solution to analyze your processes right from day one. We provide Zoho CRM Software that gives a good, smart and an ideal enterprise-ready package. Agile CRM Software has modern features that provide easy implementation and support at an affordable price.

We also design innovative services for your vision and assure flawless and complete implementation. We create and integrate the best products and solutions for your company and implement business support solutions to showcase your capacities and services.